Italy

The Italian market saw a year-on-year increase in new installations as several unsubsidized solar parks came online. Most of last year’s new capacity arrived in November and December. The regions with largest volumes were big-solar magnets Apulia and Sardinia.

Solar project owners responded to an appeal to donate a portion of their solar incentive payments to the public health authorities as another multinational body emphasized the importance of coronavirus fiscal stimulus packages having environmentally-friendly conditions attached.

Although the energy price recovered this week, ultra low levels driven by bumper solar power generation on a sunny weekend in Germany reportedly put further pressure on the business case for conventional energy.

Political support for the idea of linking Covid-19 exit strategies to green policy appears to be mounting in EU institutions. Easter, appropriately enough, may have injected new life into the idea.

The PV production equipment manufacturer said its employees will return to work at to two locations in Germany as planned after the Easter break, despite concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Industry body SolarPower Europe hosted a webinar to consider how the global public health crisis will affect solar. While workers and materials are still available, industry experts are concerned about the state of the financial sector. Banks could become more conservative and raise the cost of capital for renewables projects.

Grenergy was this week due to ship 400,000 face masks to Latin America as European developers today voiced a fear project finance will become increasingly difficult to find as the coronavirus lockdown continues.

An Italian consortium has developed a panel recycling process it claims can recover up to 99% of raw materials. The developers claim their technique takes only 40 seconds to fully recycle a standard panel, depending on size and recycling site conditions.

In a recent conversation with pv magazine, Virginia Canazza, the CEO of Italian consultancy REF-E, outlined future scenarios for PV in the Italian PPA market. Projects will be delayed, as prices for gas and CO2 certificates are already low. Unsubsidized PV projects via PPAs might still be bankable, but it is unlikely that investors will risk dealing with small margins. Current capture prices do not justify investments and new entrants may wait for market stability.

pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.